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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26621443">It Must Have Been The Way You Kissed Me</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/octothorpetopus/pseuds/octothorpetopus'>octothorpetopus</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The West Wing</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Cuddling &amp; Snuggling, F/M, Fluff and Humor, Idiots in Love, Snowed In</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 06:22:03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,883</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26621443</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/octothorpetopus/pseuds/octothorpetopus</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Snowed in at the White House, C.J.'s life is less of a fairytale than ever. That is, until her red-haired, suspenders-wearing prince sweeps in with one too many questions and all the right things to say.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Danny Concannon/C. J. Cregg</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>32</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>It Must Have Been The Way You Kissed Me</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>“What do you mean I can’t get home?” Disgruntled, C.J. pulled off her gloves and folded her arms. Carol raised her eyebrows, but stood firmly in the doorway, blocking C.J.’s way out.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Have you </span>
  <em>
    <span>looked</span>
  </em>
  <span> out the window?” C.J. had, in fact, spent the last several hours distracting herself from the work piling up on her desk by staring out the window, watching the snow fall in massive clumps rather than flakes, and thinking of all the things she’d do when she went home for the holidays. One of her brothers had called her earlier, and it was like a Christmas switch flipped in her brain. She had the snow, she had the gifts already bought, now all she needed was to get home and have one night of relaxation so she could leave this weekend for what would presumably be a hectic Christmas and preferably not think about the White House for her entire four days of vacation. So she was particularly inclined to leave now, and would have body-checked Carol in order to do so if she didn’t think that would end in the emergency room.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah? And?” C.J. generally tried to be a patient person, but the patience was leaving her body like air out of a punctured balloon.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And what do you see?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That? That’s nothing.” Being from the midwest, C.J. had never been particularly fazed by snow.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s a snowstorm, C.J.” Carol didn’t seem to share that view.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Please.” C.J. made an attempt to bypass Carol, but her assistant didn’t budge.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You can’t go home,” said Carol, stone-faced.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>Carol!</span>
  </em>
  <span>” C.J. sounded more like a whiny three-year-old than she meant to, but at this moment, didn’t excessively care.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Neither can I. So, stop complaining.” Carol stepped out of the doorway and started back to her desk, leaving the coast clear. C.J. glanced briefly at the exit, then stormed after Carol.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You know what I was going to do tonight?” she asked, hovering over Carol’s desk.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Nope.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I was gonna have a bubble bath. And then I’d pour myself a nice glass of wine and watch trashy TV and forget all my sorrows.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I think my girlfriend was going to propose to me tonight.” C.J. stepped back, properly chided.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh. You win.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I really do.” C.J. was about to say something else when Carol smiled suddenly, not at C.J., but at something behind her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hi, Danny,” Carol said, ignoring C.J. entirely.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, god. Could this day get any worse?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Nice to see you, Carol.” Danny was right behind her, so close she caught the barest whiff of his cologne. He always had such nice cologne.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Whatever.” C.J. threw up her hands and left them at Carol’s desk. “Have fun!” Behind her, she heard footsteps. Biting back a smile, she walked slowly, allowing him to catch up. His cologne hit her like a truck, although it wasn’t like he was wearing that much of it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Danny. Danny. Daniel.” He had gotten a haircut sometime since she had seen him last, and as much as she liked scruffy, long-haired Danny, the short hair and freshly trimmed goatee… well, maybe it wasn’t just the cologne that had her so overwhelmed she could hardly speak.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Are you drunk?” And just like that, she was no longer overwhelmed. Still not underwhelmed, Danny could never be underwhelming, but she was… properly whelmed. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sadly, no.” She did have a bottle of wine buried in her desk somewhere, and as soon as Danny left she was going to dig it out.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Snowed in, huh?” Evidently, leaving her alone was not in his plans. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah. Pretty much. What’re you still doing here?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Writing a story.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Only nice things about us, I hope.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You know me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Unfortunately.” He flopped onto her couch and grinned up at her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why are you still here? Everyone’s gone.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Just wanted to get some reading done. Guess I should have gone home when I had the chance.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We really can’t leave?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Not until the storm’s over.” C.J. shed her coat and tossed in onto the couch. She chuckled when it landed on Danny’s head, and fell backwards into her own desk chair.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sucks.” He folded her jacket and set it to the side, surprisingly gentle.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why? Big plans?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Actually, yes- don’t look so surprised. I have a life.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Fancy date?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Good.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I was gonna- What do you mean, ‘good’?” His head snapped up.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What? Nothing. I didn’t mean anything.” C.J. made a mental note that when she finally got home, she was going to get in the shower and scream for a good thirty minutes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You said it was good that I didn’t have a date.” He was grinning smugly up at her, and C.J. honestly couldn’t tell whether she wanted to slap him or kiss him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I just- I just meant- I don’t know why I said that.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Mhm.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Nothing.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You want a beer or something?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sure.” C.J. dug out her minifridge from under the stack of files on top of it and found her last two beers, one of which she handed to Danny.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What are your plans for the holidays?” He took a long sip of beer, looking up at her with a sort of curious fondness all the while. “What? Why are you looking at me like that?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“C.J., why are you asking me about my holiday plans?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m interested.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Really?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah. Is that so hard to believe?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, it’s just… I don’t really have any plans.” He wasn’t lying, he was a poor liar. In a way, it made C.J. a little sad that he was going to be all by himself for Christmas. On the other hand, a thrill ran through her, because that meant he didn’t have a girlfriend or anyone to spend it with.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What about your parents?” As she asked, C.J. found she didn’t know that much about Danny or his family. He had to have parents, for obvious reasons, but she didn’t know a thing about them. She didn’t know where he’d grown up, what he’d done as a kid, how close he was to his family, how much family he had… anything, really. He knew she had brothers, because she had a picture of them on her desk, and he knew her mom died because she told him… well, she wasn’t quite sure when she had told him that, but he knew, and that was sort of a comfort.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“They’ll be with my sisters.” So he had sisters. Multiple sisters. That made sense to C.J., he seemed like the kind of guy who had been raised with sisters.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And you’re not going because…?” No one was better than Danny at plying information out of people, but C.J. could hold her own.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Being the only single guy in a room full of happy couples isn’t exactly fun.” So his sisters were all married, or at least with someone, and Danny was certainly and definitively single. That being said, C.J. understood the lack of interest in hanging around his family when they were all happily with someone and she was not. Her brothers were all married, and though she loved their wives, there was always a silent judgement that she spent too much time working and that was why she couldn’t hold a relationship. Maybe it was just that he had a crush on her, but at least Danny never judged her for that. Hell, he worked twice as much as she did.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But sitting around in your sad apartment at Christmas is?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“My apartment’s not sad.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Mhm.” </span>
  <em>
    <span>It wasn’t nice enough for you to spend any time there,</span>
  </em>
  <span> she thought.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What about you?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What about me?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Your plans, C.J.. For the holidays?” Cringing, C.J. shook her head. She had kind of hoped he wouldn’t ask, but Danny had a nasty habit of asking the questions she didn’t want him to, intentional or not.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, well. Nothing much. I’ll probably spend it with my dad.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You don’t seem particularly excited.” His face fell. He wasn’t amused anymore, or fake-irritated by all the questions. He was sincere and genuine and truly wanted to know.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well… it’s just- Christmas was always- Doesn’t matter. You don’t need to hear that.” He put his beer down on the corner of her desk and folded his arms, settling in.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t mind.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, really, I don’t want to bore you with the sad tales of my teenage years.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You could never bore me.” And that, that right there was all C.J. had ever wanted to hear. He had said it, what she had searched for for years. That between her near-obsession with work and her complicated, at best, family life, she wasn’t boring. And someone wanted to listen to her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Shut up.” Jokes, always with the jokes. But jokes made it all easier. Jokes meant she didn’t really have to tell him, because even if she wanted him to ask, which she did, she didn’t have it in her to answer.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m serious.” He stood up and leaned on the front of her desk, close enough she could smell his cologne again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re annoying.” Truthfully, he was, a little, but she liked annoying. Or at least she preferred annoying to distant.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, but you think that’s cute.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I do not.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Then why are you blushing?” C.J. tried to stop blushing, which only made her blush more. She resorted to covering her face with her hands, made sheepish by the way he could turn her face red in seconds.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Go away, Daniel,” she muttered from under her hands. Smiling, he reached over and pulled them away from her face, still holding them as he sat in the chair opposite her desk.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So Christmas at your dad’s. Why does that not make you jump in glee?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Danny, have you ever seen me jump in glee?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Way to dodge the question there, ma’am.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m not.” She was.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes, you are.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes, I am.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You can tell me.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s just… when I was little me and my mom would always decorate the tree together, bake cookies… all those silly things. It would just be the two of us. It was </span>
  <em>
    <span>our</span>
  </em>
  <span> time. And when she died… well, it just wasn’t the same.” Something in him softened, and he bit his lip, not really sure what he should say. It was times like these she was glad he knew about her mom already, but it didn’t really make her life any easier, did it?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“C.J….” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m fine.” C.J. cleared her throat and pulled her hands back, looking anywhere but him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You don’t have to be.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thanks.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“When my dad got remarried, his new wife tried to be all </span>
  <em>
    <span>motherly</span>
  </em>
  <span>, but it just wasn’t the same. She wasn’t my mother.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do you look like her? Your mother, that is.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“A bit. She was prettier than me, though.” C.J.’s memories of her mom were faint, but she could remember the way her mother had looked. Tall, with curly hair a lot like C.J.’s, but with these dark gray eyes that seemed to hold the whole world for a little girl who loved her mom.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I find that hard to believe.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, Danny I’m serious. She looked like something out of a fairytale.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So do you.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t be stupid.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“C.J., I think you’re beautiful.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I know I am. I just don’t exactly look like Sleeping Beauty.” </span>
  <em>
    <span>Sleeping Beauty was only 5 feet tall, </span>
  </em>
  <span>she didn’t bother to add. </span>
  <em>
    <span>And Sleeping Beauty didn’t wear pantsuits and she just lay there in the woods until some stupid prince came along and kissed her and woke her up. Princes don’t want the girl who’s awake.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“Eh,” Danny said, and shrugged. “She’s boring anyways.” How was it that he had spent so long flirting with her, and yet tonight was the one night he seemed to say all the right things?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Can I ask you something?” She asked absentmindedly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Always.” He folded his hands and waited expectantly. C.J. considered him for a long while.  “… C.J., you are aware that you haven’t actually said anything yet, right?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Uhm, yeah.” She shook her head, as if waking up from a long sleep. “So – eh – I was just wondering if you would mind staying here tonight?” The truth was, she hadn’t realized she was asking that until the words were already out of her mouth. Danny’s mouth flapped open and shut, and he looked a little like a goldfish, which made her laugh.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“In your office?” he finally managed to stutter out. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, in the Residence. Of course, in my office, Daniel. You don’t have to, though,” she added, building herself a quick defense just in case he said no. “I’m sure you can sleep in Toby’s office; he went home hours ago.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, I – I was just surprised, that’s all.” Now it was him who couldn’t seem to meet her eyes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You don’t have to.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I want to.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You can pull the couch out.”As she spoke, she got up and walked over so she was standing in front of him, and pulled him up by his tie so they were only a couple of inches apart. “So, two people can sleep on it. On the couch. Two people. One. Two. You and me. That’s two.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You okay there, C.J.?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Mhm?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re kinda… invading my personal space here.” He gestured loosely at the minimal space between them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Is that so?” C.J. asked, and twisted his tie around her hand, pulling him even closer.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m not saying I mind, it’s just-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>Shut up, fishboy.</span>
  </em>
  <span>” With the last little bit of leverage she had over him, she tugged on his tie, closing the gap. His hand found hers as their lips met, tangling together, twisted around his tie. His other hand was on her hip, and she shifted so that it fell comfortably into her back pocket, pulling him closer, so close that he seemed to be sucking the very air from her lungs. It had been awhile since the last time they kissed, and she had missed the scruff of his beard on her lips. After kissing Danny, she’d never understood why women didn’t like men with beards. He pulled back first, face almost as red as his hair. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That was…” He didn’t seem to be able to finish his sentence, so she finished it for him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Nice?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I was going to say unexpected, but nice is fine too.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, don’t be annoying.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You like that about me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t like anything about you.” Lies. Pure lies. The more time she spent around him, the more she realized she liked everything about him, even the incessant questions and the pushiness.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sure.” His hand was still wrapped over hers, which in turn was wrapped around his tie.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Can I have my tie back?” She released him, but he made no move to step back. He just continued to stare up at her, the affection in his eyes unmatched by anything he had ever seen.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Danny?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Nothing.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Nothing!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>C.J.!</span>
  </em>
  <span>” He chuckled, exasperated.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Just… thank you.” C.J. kissed his forehead, brushing lightly to disperse the lipstick mark she left behind. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re welcome.” Gingerly, he reached up to run his fingers down the side of her face.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Now, help me with the couch, nimrod.” And just like that, the moment was broken. Danny shed his jacket and rolled up his sleeves, smirking at C.J. as they worked. To Danny’s credit, he did most of the work while C.J. supervised. She had a blanket and a couple of pillows tucked in the closet, which he helped her lay out, and when he was finally done, they celebrated their hard work with another kiss. The bed was large enough that each of them could lay on it with a good few feet of space between them, although C.J. was staring up at the ceiling rather than at him, fiddling with her hands.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Danny?” she asked, rolling onto her side to see that he was already facing her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Mhm?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hold me.” Decisively, she picked up his hand and moved it to to the small of her back, and inched forward so that her forehead nudged his.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What about-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The door’s locked.” Still, she kept her voice low as she rolled onto her back, his hand still under her. His other arm crossed her stomach, sending a jolt of something electric through her. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ah’kay.” That seemed to be all he needed. Without saying another word, he rested his head on her shoulder, pulled her in, and started snoring almost immediately. C.J. didn’t fall asleep quite so easily. As gently as possible, so as not to wake him, she ran her fingers through his hair. Sleeping Beauty had been asleep, waiting for a handsome prince on a white horse to come find her and wake her. C.J. was already wide awake by the time her prince came along. But here, wrapped in his arms, a snowstorm raging silently outside, she thought maybe, just maybe, she might finally get to sleep. </span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>if you enjoyed it, please leave a comment, I promise you it makes my day as a writer. thank you so much for reading!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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